Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is capable of reducing security risk, a method of controlling the image forming apparatus, a system including the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus that has an information security policy applied to jobs processed thereby, a method of controlling the image forming apparatus, a system including the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
The information security policy is a basic policy on information security, i.e. a basic policy concerning security-based restrictions for preventing unauthorized use of information, invasion from the outside, information leakage, and unauthorized use of devices and apparatuses connected to the network. For example, among items of the information security policy, a password policy is known which reinforces security by increasing the length of a password to be set such that complexity of the password is increased.
It is desirable that personal computers (hereinafter referred to as the “PCs”), and server apparatuses, such as a file server and an authentication server, which are connected to a network of e.g. an office are operated according to an information security policy determined on an office-by-office basis.
For example, as an example of the above-mentioned PC, there has been known a PC that stops, if a violation of the information security policy is detected at the startup of the PC, a function of the PC to thereby suppress an operation which violates the information security policy (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-230178).
In recent years, apparatuses in an office other than PCs and server apparatus, connected to a network, include peripheral apparatuses, such as a multifunction peripheral. Particularly, the multifunction peripheral has been made even more sophisticated and complicated such that it is equipped with not only an image print function and an image transmission function, but also a function of storing image data and a file server function for providing image data to PCs. Such a multifunction peripheral plays the same role as a server apparatus on the network, and is required to follow the information security policy at the startup of the multifunction peripheral, similarly to the PCs and the server apparatus.
However, in spite of the fact that apparatuses, such as PCs, server apparatuses, and multifunction peripherals, are required to strictly follow the information security policy at the startup of the apparatus, it is not required to perform an operation for checking execution of a job after the startup of the apparatus as to whether or not it violates the information security policy. Therefore, for example, even when a user of the multifunction peripheral executes a job, the user's consciousness of security remains low and is not improved, causing a security risk that an important document, such as a confidential document, is easily printed by a person other than the user.
Further, although it is possible to strictly follow the information security policy with respect to execution of a job by stopping execution of the job itself, this is troublesome to the user who uses the multifunction peripheral.